The present invention relates to stable yet easily demountable modular seating systems.
Temporary, demountable seating systems for indoor and, outdoor arenas are known. For example, classic bleacher seating systems include continuous horizontal seating boards, which are arranged in a sloped orientation, with the seating boards farther away, being incrementally higher than the next lower level seating boards. Upright stud framing holds the seating boards, interspersed with parallel, incrementally positioned floorboards. To prevent falling at the edges of the bleacher seating, handrail banisters are provided.
The drawbacks for bleacher seating include the fact that flat seats without backrests are generally uncomfortable, especially for events of several hours or more. In addition, the floorboards may shake, creating uncomfortable vibrations for adjacent seated customers, with undesirable noise.
Furthermore, the side rail banisters are sometimes chain link or a horizontal configuration of rails that are climbable and loose, and they must be of a sturdy construction to provide sufficient lateral support to prevent falling.
Attempts have been made to provide temporary indoor seating systems with groups of seats, typically three, with backs rests, that are joined to a framework. However, the attachments for such systems are inconvenient to remove and reinstall. In addition, these indoor seating systems are not made for outdoor use.
Moreover, in existing seating systems, in order to prevent lateral deflection, the tubular cylindrical posts supporting rails need complicated fasteners, and cannot be simply dropped in place and secured. Also, to provide this support in a vertical picket for the rail, other attempts are made of steel construction.
In addition, tubular, cylindrical handrails can be easy to lose hold of, especially when wet from exposure to recent rain or morning dew.
Furthermore, the deck panels in existing seating systems need external strut supports.
In addition, existing seating systems often require motorized lift access to be erected, which is especially difficult to provide in remote outdoor amphitheater grandstand arenas or in inner city indoor theater spaces requiring the erection of seats from scratch.
Assembly of the seating components is also difficult in outdoor conditions, where dirt can get into apertures in cam-operable locking bolts and their respective slot receptacles, preventing the automatic locking by gravity pull against locking rotating rings. These prior art locking bolts do not have any internal force mechanisms to assist gravity in deflecting the rotating rings of the locking bolts.
Furthermore, often the vertical posts of a seating frame are square in cross section, with too small a transverse, horizontal clearance to fit a full prior art locking bolt therethrough. Previous rails are steel.
Another problem with outdoor seating systems is the fact that jacks must be used to adjust the deploying of structural frame supports on irregular outdoor terrain. Since the jacks have vertically extending members engage with other vertically extending posts, there is a need to provide simple fasteners which can securely lock the posts to the jack supports, and offer bracing locations when the jacks are extended.
Another problem with existing outdoor seating systems is that the modular groups of seats with backrests need to be firmly attached to the supporting framework, yet they must also be quickly disassembled, two tasks which are difficult to achieve together.
Finally, outdoor decks to walk on can be noisy if the joints are loose, or can be uncomfortable if they are walked on, and unless they are continuous, users can trip on joining seamed surfaces. It is not a flexible system.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an easily demountable arena seating system in a modular design to facilitate numerous reconfigurations.
It is another object to provide a sturdy framework for modular arena seating that minimizes noise and vibrations.
It is yet another object to provide a modular arena seating system, which is quickly assembled and disassembled and which contains seats with backs.
It is a further object to provide safety railings for arena seating which are easy to install, are not climbable and which are light weight for ease of assembly, such as being made of aluminum.
It is yet another object to provide locking bolts for modular seating systems, which are spring-loaded to facilitate locking and unlocking of the bolts and to maintain vandal proof integrity.
It is also an object to provide fasteners for assembling seating arena framework structures wherein the fasteners can be utilized in areas of small clearances without using the entire pin assembly.
It is yet another object of the present invention to improve over the disadvantages of the prior art arena seating systems.
In keeping with these objects and others which may become apparent, the present invention includes a sturdy modular arena seating system with comfortable flip-up backrest seats, which can be easily assembled and disassembled and reconfigured.
The floor board decks of the framework of the arena seating system of the present invention are constructed to minimize noise and vibrations when walked upon. For example, the deck includes hollow metal planks, such as aluminum planks, which have fitted edge extrusions that are attached thereto to lock in place. When locked together, the assembled adjacent planks form a continuous walking surface with minimal deflection when the weight of a person walks thereon. As a result, the floor board decks are quiet and do not vibrate excessively of flex, thus preventing uncomfortable vibrations to the occupants of nearby seats.
The floor board decks are attached to a structural framework of struts, and the framework holds modular groups of chairs with backrests in a tight position, thus reducing any discomfort to the occupants of the seats and becoming modular in design. Each section of chairs has upper and lower bottom attachment flanges which are aligned with grooves in the respective protruding extrusions of the adjacent floor board decks.
For example, an upper flange on the rear of the seat module is inserted in a groove of a front attachment extrusion of the upper floor deck adjacent to the bottom of the seat cushion area. In addition, a lower flange also on the rear of the seat module is inserted in a groove of the rear attachment extrusion of the next lower floor deck adjacent to the bottom of the seating module. This next lower floor deck is the deck for the feet of the arena patron sitting in the chair of the seating module.
These modular seating groups of chairs are kept in place by spring loaded fasteners for temporary seating systems, or for permanent seating groups of chairs, by more permanent vandal resistant fasteners, such as button cap screws, which are threaded through a tapped fixing plate and a threaded barrel.
The upper post struts of the supporting framework are insertable in further lower hollow post struts, and are secured in place by unique fasteners, including spring loaded locking bolts. To accommodate the insertion and fastening of an upper strut post within another lower strut post, the upper inner strut posts have longitudinally extended grooves to accommodate fastener heads connecting the upper and lower strut posts.
Furthermore, for safe guardrails, upright pickets are provided in special polygonal cross sectional sections of aluminum to maintain light weight design, such as hexagons having one longitudinally extending axis longer than a transverse axis. Such a guardrail picket configuration minimizes lateral deflection, especially from a person leaning against the guardrail. The polygonal cross section also prevents loosening by rotation associated with prior art cylindrical handrail posts set in hollow cylindrical fittings. Moreover, the horizontal handrails of the banister have ergonomically designed configurations in cross section, such as with linearly extending grooves and elevations, which provide undulating surface texturing, which are easier to hold onto than tubular cylindrical handrails.